Determining current flow to install "audiophile" fuses.

Thanks Almarg, your recommendations are always appreciated.
Power in NYS is pretty stable, so there is less difference than folks on the West Coast where I have been told line voltage varies considerably during the day (actually, it was told to me by SMc).
I actually listened to the system for 3 days with the fuses oriented in one direction, so I was sure I was hearing the changes of what I thought I heard. I am pretty analytic by nature and have a good memory for sound, if that makes sense. When I was sure of what I noticed, I then moved the fuse to the opposite direction. It was apparent that there was a difference in sound quality and it was very evident.
I will take your advice, though, and try reversing them using the same music, at the same loudness, etc. in order to be as non-judgemental as possible.
Though, I will say that, yes, fuses do change the color of the music. In my case, it was dramatic.

Once again, Geoff,

Your excluding shielded designs from the discussion is a bit of a strawman, since the vast majority of cables are shielded and therefore have directionality "mandated" by the shield connection, which I’d hazard a guess has a random relationship with the orientation of the signal wire’s directionality in cables from most manufacturers.

Of course, one can reverse the connection of shielded cables with (electrical) impunity.

Assuming a 50% chance of randomly assembled wire being oriented consistently with the shield’s gounding scheme, one is still faced with the choice of experimenting with orientation, and I’d be the last person to stop someone from experimenting.

Fuse directionality?  Knock your socks off.  As implied earlier however, the experiment needs some controls, and one of them I didn't see mentioned was simply removing and reinstalling the fuse in the SAME orientation.  It's entirely possible that the act of removing/installing a fuse slightly alters the contact pressure and this is what people are reporting.

I already covered my risk tolerance with respect to these fuses in another thread, but suffice it to say, Roger Modjewski's comments carry some weight with me and support my approach - irrespective of whether they're being used in an AC or DC application.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Hi gdnrbob,

IF fuses are directional, AND manufacturers know this,
Then, Why can't they tell us which way to orient the fuse for most musical reproduction? As I said earlier, Pat as SMc, said to try them one way and reverse them later and see what sounded better. To my feeble mind, if these things are directional, then you must know which way is best without needing to switch things around.

There are too many phase relationships which a manufacturer can't predict:  from your speaker's crossovers (and speaker wire connection) to the number of gain stages in your amplification chain - even # or odd # (phase non-inverted vs. phase inverted).

People hear what they hear for all sorts of reasons that are out of the manufacturer's control.

If this concerns you enough, then you should experiment. If it doesn't you're one of the fortunate ones who enjoys listening to music playing through your hi-fi :-)

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Thom wrote,

"Your excluding shielded designs from the discussion is a bit of a strawman, since the vast majority of cables are shielded and therefore have directionality "mandated" by the shield connection, which I’d hazard a guess has a random relationship with the orientation of the signal wire’s directionality in cables from most manufacturers.

Of course, one can reverse the connection of shielded cables with (electrical impunity)."

Actually I didn’t exclude shielded designs from the discussion. So your statement is actually the Strawman. What I said was it’s more difficult to establish what’s going on in a shielded design since the sound is directional for BOTH the shield AND the conductor. You can think of it as trying to solve two simultaneous equations. But since I’m a nice guy here’s what you can do. Measure the voltage drop across the shielded interconnect, first one direction then the other. Just like the measurements of the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Since the shield is not connected at one end you will be measuring the voltage drop of the conductor only. The voltage drop will be somewhat less one way than the other. Just like the fuses on the HiFi Tuning data sheets. Thus, you will be able to determine which way the *conductor* should be connected in the system. The only issue then will be, does the correct orientation of the shield agree with the correct orientation of the conductor. If the manufacturer was a clever fellow (or a lucky fellow) it will. Follow?

Thom also wrote,

"Fuse directionality? Knock your socks off. As implied earlier however, the experiment needs some controls, and one of them I didn’t see mentioned was simply removing and reinstalling the fuse in the SAME orientation. It’s entirely possible that the act of removing/installing a fuse slightly alters the contact pressure and this is what people are reporting."

You’re absolutely correct, there is a possibility that the contact pressure is somehow altered, or that some oxidation is scraped off during the experiment, or that it’s the placebo effect or expectation bias or some other variable. But if the experiment is done carefully those other possibilities can be eliminated from consideration. Just like for any experiment.

geoff kait
machina dynamica